Participatory Ecology

Jan 21st: Naked, Frigid Biologist Commiserates With Chickadees

David George Haskell's new book The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch In Nature chronicles his experiences getting up close and personal with creatures in a patch of old-growth forest in Sewanee.

Haskell teaches biology at the University of the South, and he wants to bring lessons about ecology to a general audience. In this interview, Haskell talks about how he hiked out to one spot in the woods almost daily for a year and used that spot as a microcosm for the whole wilderness's ecosystem. Also, why he focused on small creatures rather than huge issues like climate change, and why at one point he stripped off all his clothes. Viking Press published The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch In Nature in March of this year, and it's gotten positive reviews from Kirkus and The Wall Street Journal.